Jacques Chirac 'regularly received cash from African leaders'

Jacques Chirac, the former French president, and Dominique de Villepin, the
former prime minister, regularly received suitcases stuffed with millions of
francs from a string of African leaders, the lawyer who said he carried the
cases alleged on Sunday.

Jacques Chirac, left, and Dominique de Villepin, right, are alleged to have regularly received suitcases stuffed with millions of francsPhoto: REUTERS

Robert Bourgi, widely reported to be an unofficial "adviser" to President Nicolas Sarkozy, said he shuttled between African countries including Burkina Faso, the Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Senegal for more than 25 years.

Each time he would bring back up to 15 million francs (£1.5 million) in cash. Mr de Villepin yesterday strenuously denied the allegations, saying they were part of a "smokescreen" to deflect attention from allegations that Mr Sarkozy – his rival – was involved in illegal party funding via kickbacks from arms sales.

In an explosive interview with Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, Mr Bourgi claimed he transported "tens of millions of francs" each year, with the amounts going up in the run-up to French presidential elections – an intimation the cash was used to fund Mr Chirac's political campaigns. "I saw Chirac and Villepin count the money in front of me," he said.

He alleged he regularly passed on bank notes from five African presidents: Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal; Blaise Campaoré of Burkina Faso; Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast; Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Congo and Omar Bongo of Gabon, whom Mr Bourgi called "Papa". Together, he alleged they contributed £6.2 million to Mr Chirac's successful 2002 presidential campaign. A sixth leader, President Obiang N'Guema of Equatorial Guinea allegedly was the last member to join the cash donor club.

Mr Bourgi claimed that in late 2005 Mr de Villepin announced the cash donations must stop. "Disappointed at being rejected", Mr Bourgi alleged he turned to Mr Sarkozy. He said he worked as an unofficial "adviser" to the president but, he insisted, "without the suitcases". Mr Sarkozy personally awarded Mr Bourgi the Légion d'honneur, France's highest honour, shortly after his election, saying: "I know, dear Robert, I can count on your participation in France's foreign policy, with efficiency and discretion".

Mr de Villepin dismissed the claims as "nonsense and smokescreens", saying the timing of the interview was "not by chance". He pointed out that it was just three days before his appeals trial in the so-called Clearstream affair.

Mr de Villepin was cleared last year of seeking to smear Mr Sarkozy by knowingly linking his name to Luxembourg-based bank accounts, which were wrongly believed to contain laundered money. A guilty verdict in the appeals trial would torpedo any presidential campaign.

The interview also follows the release of a book by investigative journalist Pierre Péan called The Briefcase Republic. In it, he cites Michel de Bonnecorse, Mr Chirac's Africa adviser, who alleges he saw Mr Bourgi place a suitcase of cash at Mr Sarkozy's feet when the current president was interior minister. The Elysée declined to comment.

An aid to Mr Gbagbo said on Sunday that the Ivory Coast had handed over €3 million (£2.7 million) to Mr Chirac in 2002 to finance his electoral campaign.

"Robert Bourgi is perfectly right," said Mamadou Koulibaly, adding that the sum was "around two billion West African CFA francs (about €3 million) brought from Abidjan to Paris in a suitcase".

Gérard Larcher, the head of the senate from Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, said: "Why is (Bourgi) talking now? When one has things to say, one says them to the judiciary". François Hollande, the opposition Socialists' presidential front-runner called for an independent investigation into the "grave allegations".

Mr Bourgi said he was "at the disposal" of the French courts, and that he had spoken up because: "I want to turn the page on the past, a past of which I am not very proud."

Mr Chirac and Mr Villepin both intend to file defamation complaints against Mr Bourgi over his claims. Mr Chirac’s lawyer, Jean Veil, said the former president had instructed him to do so, adding that it was "scandalous that Mr Bourgi waited until President Chirac is no longer able to defend himself” because he he has gone into mental decline.

A spokesman for Senegal’s president on Sunday night dismissed claims he had handed over cash as “totally false".

Henri Guaino, Mr Sarkozy’s speechwriter and a close presidential aide said last night that Mr Bourgi was “not an advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy".